management and leadership

Why do some companies have continuing, sustained growth in excess of those companies around them? What is it that makes them different? Is it charismatic leadership? Right place, right time? Unique product?

This is the question that Jim Collins attempts to answer in Good to Great.

He and a team of 20 researchers spent five years and more than 15,000 manhours researching the question, Why Some Companies Make the Leap, Good to Great...and Others Don't.

They reviewed thousands of books, articles, and annual reports; conducted financial analyses on records that totaled 980 years of combined business records. They interviewed 84 senior executives and board members, scrutinized the personal and professional records of 56 of the CEO's, and researched the executive compensation plans.

They analyzed the patterns in layoffs, how media exposure affected the financial results, and finally, how technology was used and it's effect, if any on the financial performance of the companies. The team researched every aspect that could be quantified, codified, analyzed or compared.

The study begins with 1,435 Fortune 500 companies and narrows the list down to 11 that made the transition from good-to-great companies.

These are companies that stand out as being different from their direct competition.This book shows you objectively what it was that made these companies financial returns 3,4, to 18 times better than stock market averages for 15 years. And, it tells you
how to apply these findings to your business.

Level 5 Leadership: Moving from good to great starts with leadership, with the will and drive to succeed. Not on a personal level, but for the company to succeed.

First Who...Then What: Next find the right people to manage and run the business.

Control the Brutal Facts: Then look at the facts objectively. What are your core competencies?

Hedgehog Concept: Then take action based on being the best at what you can be the best at.

Culture of Discipline: Implement the resulting plan rigorously, with discipline and focus.

Good to Great is a textbook on how to run a successful organization. It includes extensive appendices detailing the methodologies of the research and comphrehensive notes and references.

Good to Great is a must-read for anyone building or leading a business or group. And it challenges a lot of the current hype
about makes a company successful. Whether it be the charismatic CEO, to the hype of IT, or merger mania, none of these contributed to the success of the top 11 companies covered in Good-to-Great.

At 300 pages, Good-to-Great is a comphrehensive research project, well written and entertaining too. If you enjoyed Built to Last, you will love Good-to-Great.

When it comes to business books written about research work, I have tended to place them at the lower end of my reading stack. However, once I picked up this book, I could not put it down.

The author even admits that the results were surprising, that many of the traits of the leaders, culture and style of the "great" businesses did not fit the mold of what we would normally expect. How timely to read about great companies when so many companies are being destroyed by their leadership. The findings were surprising to me also...but supported what I believe is the key problem with today's CEO's...short term focus to satisfy Wall Street. "Good to Great" confirms that these companies and their leaders are building businesses...not for this quarter's results, but for the long run.

You will discover the findings of "Level 5 Leadership" to be eye-opening and refreshing...but very contrary to the "star" CEO stereotype that the media honors. You will also get very good insight into "First Who, Then What". This will be a hard concept for many executives to really grasp and adapt to, as it has the nuance that really good employees can better define the direction than the leader....Mmmm.

I personally also enjoyed the "Technology Accelerators" section from my first-hand experience in dealing with corporate innovation initiatives. The author's findings support that great companies "apply" today's technology...you don't have to invent the new technology. This is really a hard concept for corporate executives to understand.

This is a keeper...I highly recommend this book. A must read for business leaders that really, I mean, really have a passion for "building" a business that will last. I don't think that there are too many executives out there that truly understand that anymore...these findings just have not been a part of executive scorecards for quite some time. It is time to learn from these findings and change our leadership ways.

Collins' curiosity and clear study brings to light some of those factors that contribute to greatness. These findings are grounded within individual, teachable 'points of view' which are easily applied to large organisations and applicable to small busness as well.
Collins puts his findings in clear accessable language. Including the finding that is responsible for the title... That good is the enemy of great.
I highly recommend this book/CD to leaders that are enaged with designing futures and those that work with them. It is core reading for key teams. It has made a significant difference in being able to articulate powerful conversations with teams about that which is tacit and critical to success. Giving common language and principles to engage with. A great study book for learning teams.